Federal Taxes

Taxes Matter

At the most basic level, taxes exist to fund the government. Decisions about how much revenue we should raise from federal taxes and from what sources we should raise it are incredibly important. The influence of federal tax policy ripples throughout the entire economy and affects funding at all levels of government. Jump to the latest updates...

Principles & Policies

Tax Reform - the current effort underway in Congress and any changes to federal tax law - should be guided by some basic principles of good tax policy. Taxes should:

Generate the appropriate amount of revenue to fund our national priorities. The current tax code does not raise enough revenue, which leads to cuts to programs and services.

Raise revenue from the sources that can most afford to pay for our collective enterprise of government. New revenue should come from the wealthy and from corporations whose taxes are lower now than they were a generation ago.

Make it easier to file and collect our taxes. Making it easier to file taxes will make the system fairer and make tax avoidance more difficult. It will also reduce the burden of compliance on families and small businesses.

These principles should guide all federal tax reform and policy change decisions. The main purpose of taxation is to generate revenue. We should generate enough revenue to pay for our national priorities and avoid unnecessary budget cuts. We should raise tax revenue from the sources that can most afford to pay. And we should make paying and collecting taxes simpler.

Policy Options

Tax wealth like work!Treating investment income like earned income would generate hundreds of billions of dollars. The current privilege given to investment income in the tax code overwhelmingly benefits the extremely wealthy. We should end this benefit.

Strengthen the estate tax.The estate tax is our most progressive federal tax. The estate tax can generate significantly more revenue while still only being paid by the largest multimillion dollar estates.

More worthy tax reform options that can easily increase revenue and progressivityInclude: The Robin Hood Tax, new upper income tax brackets, eliminating deductions that beneft the wealthy, and a Buffet rule

In the State of the Union address, President Obama called for strengthening tax benefits for middle class and low-income working families, and for investing more in child care, early education, and higher education, including making the first two years of community college free. Responsible Wealth is gathering signatures in support of the President's plan.